A Time for Giving
by Sheankelor
Summary: Last year, Christmas caught Harry by surprise. This year he had to figure out presents for his friends. Set in CoS.


AN: This is a gift for YenGirl. Thank you, Ladio, for always being there when I need an ear and offering me corners of blankets and snacks. You are the best!

A Time for Giving

Harry sat on the edge of his bed, his eyes with a far-off look as he stared at Ron's bed. Christmas was coming. The break starts this weekend and Christmas is in the coming week!

He frowned as he wracked his brain trying to think of a present for Ron and Hermione. He had no hope of buying anything, and he knew Aunt Petunia certainly wouldn't buy something for him to give them. _'I can't let this year's Christmas go by without me given them something. Last year was a surprise.'_ His thoughts trailed off as he remembered the shock – albeit a pleasant shock – to find gifts on Christmas morning. He hadn't even thought of gifts to give his friends last year. This year had to be different. "I can't get anything to Mrs Weasley, but I need to get something for Hermione..."

Ron dropped on to his bed as he cut off the rest of Harry's statement. "Mum won't be expecting anything, honestly. If you want, you can draw her a picture or make her something out of paper – like a flower or something like that. You can send it with the rest of my family's present post."

"I can draw a picture, but it might …" Harry stopped for a moment, tilting his head to a side, "I don't have any colours."

"The twins might have some," Ron glanced towards the door as if considering going to ask them but then his gaze returned to Harry. "They like colouring and could have brought them with them."

"Will you ask for me?" Harry leant forward, his eyes darting to the ground before skating back up to Ron's, "I still have no idea about Hermione."

"A book."

Harry sighed even as he agreed, "But where can I find her a book. It's not nice to give a library book for a Christmas present – you have to return those."

Ron's brow furrowed just slightly before he ducked his head, his cheeks dusting a bit pink. "We could write her one." He rushed on before Harry could speak, "I know, it won't be like the thick tomes she loves to read – her 'light reading' – but … well, my family isn't well off, you know that, so we tend to make things for people for Christmas."

Harry grinned slightly, "Mate, I've never even done that. I've never bought or made a Christmas present before – last year was the first time I truly received anything like a real present. I want to give gifts this year more than I want to get them."

Wide blue eyes stared at him in amazement before Ron shook his head as if jarring thoughts out of it. "Your family's weird, mate."

Harry decided not to disabuse him of that notion – his family was normal, he was the weird one. Then again, since it was magic that made him a freak, Ron's entire family would be considered that as well. That would make them normal, for wizards. A smile curled his lips as he thought that, "Making a book sounds okay, but what will we write that she doesn't already know?"

Ron tilted his head to the side, his lips pressing tight as he thought. "How about an adventure book or a storybook? We can make up stories for her and then write them out."

' _I can do that – I've made up enough tales while sitting in my cupboard.'_ Harry nodded before frowning again. "But how do we bind it?"

"I can ask one of my brothers, but we've got to get the material and write it first." Ron dug out several sheets of foolscap. "I think we should make our own tales and then bind them together."

Harry pulled out his own foolscaps and flashed a grateful grin at Ron. "Sound like a good plan."

Both bent their heads over the paper, quills held at the ready, thoughts spinning through their minds as they attempted to come up with something.

§§§§§

Harry scratched three almost complete tales. Each one was worse than the first. The premise sounded so good in his mind and then he began writing them and they went from okay to horrible. Leaning back in his chair, he stared at Professor Binns, his eyes staring through the ghost as his mind whirled with story plots.

He had originally attempted to write out a Muggle tale, one based in London, about two kids running into all sorts of trouble. It modified into two kids who were actually Wizards but didn't know it and they were trapped in Muggle London trying to make it through. The last one was about two Muggleborns in Hogwarts at the time of the Founders. All sounded fun, but he kept getting bogged down. He just didn't know enough and Hermione could surely tell that.

Dropping his eyes to his desktop, he glared at the blank foolscap. _'Something I know about, something I can change here and there and not be called out on it.'_

"By Merlin, you children need to listen!" Binns snapped, his voice sounding louder than Harry'd ever heard it.

' _Merlin – I can do something completely fantasy. I can base it off of King Arthur and his knights.'_ It had been the one piece of magic that had been allowed in his relative's house. They couldn't be normal if they didn't know the tale of King Arthur and Camelot. Top it off, Dudley and he had to learn it for school. He also had enough tales based on the idea started. He'd played them in his cupboard with armless knights, little army men with broken legs, horses made from paper balls, and castles created from tented covers. _'And we had enough adventures last year and some this year, I can weave part of them in – at least the feel of them.'_

A quick nod to himself, he applied quill to paper and began. _Sir Merrick's horse threw a shoe near a small farm._

§§§§§

After the disastrous Duelling Club meeting, Ron grabbed Harry's arm and both of their stories along with the bag of binding options. "Come on, we're going to see Percy."

Harry allowed himself to be dragged up the stairs to the prefect's dorm. Ron gave a perfunctory knock before opening the door.

"Percy," Ron spoke while walking over to the only occupied bed. "Can you help us?"

The older redhead stopped writing his quill held up in the air in a manner to keep the ink from dropping off and looked towards them. "With?"

Ron glanced about the dorm and Harry did the same, noticing it was empty except for Percy.

"Harry and I wrote Hermione's present and we want it bound into a book." Ron held out the pages and the bag.

Percy's eyes widened but then he smiled, taking the sheets. "Want me to look over them and spell them so that the writing is … more unified?"

Harry nodded, "If there are lots of mistakes, can you let me know so I can correct them before the writing spell?"

"Yes," he looked at Ron, "and you?"

Ron nodded as well, "That'd be great."

"What do you have to bind it in?" Percy took the bag and began peering into it not waiting for their answer.

"Just old clothes – ones I can't fit any more and aren't worth passing down," Ron answered, "and some thin wood and some old cardboard from a box."

"I'll do it," Percy set the bag next to his bed and the tales next to his scroll.

Ron beamed, "Thanks!" and rushed out of the room.

Harry hung behind, his gaze alternating between the door Ron ran through and Percy. The prefect raised an eyebrow.

He pulled out a small square cloth satchel stuffed with crushed nut shells. "Do … do you think this could be seen easily if it was thrown at you while flying?"

Blue eyes not so different from Ron's studied him before looking at the satchel. "It could, and I could cast a few protective and locating spells on it if you want me to."

Sighing in relief, Harry nodded as he held it out.

§§§§§

Christmas morning dawned and Harry woke up before Ron. Bouncing up in his bed, he stared at the pile of presents waiting on him. He had been shocked last year but thought he'd be less so this year. He was wrong. The pile still made his eyes go wide with amazement, his heart to beat quicker, and his hands to shake.

It was still a big shock, especially after the whole debacle after he spoke to that snake last week.

Ron woke up, rubbing a hand over his face and grinning from ear to ear. "Let's open these and then go see Hermione!"

Laughing they tore into their presents. Together they opened Mrs Weasley's package and pulled on their jumpers, and then dove into their piles again.

Later, after they both exclaimed over their gifts to each other – Ron loving the toy and both agreeing to go out later to play with it, Harry shocked over the small collection of drawing of him in different classes – they rushed down to the common room. Hermione met them at the foot of the stairs and tackled them into a three-way hug.

"The book is amazing!" She practically yelled it into their ears, leaving them ringing.

Harry caught Ron's eyes and grinned. Ron grinned back. Together they squished her tighter.

"Thanks, so were the quills and the ink," Harry said.

Ron's answered her at the same time, "The quill knife is really nice, I needed a good one."

Without letting each other go, they stumbled and then tumbled onto the sofa near the fireplace.

Percy stood at the top of the stairway watching them, a small smile on his face. Clutched in his hand was a small bottle of homemade brown ink, but he decided to thank Harry for it later.


End file.
